Vast expanse of ice sheet

ESA PR 11-2007. Today marks the official start of International Polar Year (IPY) 2007-2008, a large worldwide science programme focused on the Arctic and Antarctic. ESA is contributing to this important initiative, which will constitute the most intensive period of research on the polar regions in half a century.

Thousands of scientists from more than 60 countries will be conducting research during this two-year programme. IPY 2007-2008 will be an intense, internationally coordinated campaign of polar observations, interdisciplinary research and analysis that will enhance our understanding of physical, biological and social processes in the polar regions, examine their globally-connected role in the climate system, and set the stage for assessments, forecasts, recommendations, and future discovery.

Because of the remoteness and harshness of the polar regions, in situ research is very difficult to carry out and has proved to be insufficient for comprehensive studies. For the first time during an International Polar Year, the scientific community has at its disposal satellite measurements offering broad coverage of the polar regions and thus opening up new scientific possibilities.

The last International Polar Year was in 1957-1958 and provided the foundation for much of the polar science knowledge we have today. Given the important role polar regions play for global change, there is now more than ever a need for a coordinated international initiative to achieve a major advance in polar science and in the understanding of Earth's climate and ecosystems.

Envisat monitors an iceberg collision

For more than 20 years, ESA has been providing increasing support to the cryosphere communities in the form of satellite data. Since the early 1990s, ESA has been able to provide near-continuous satellite data on these regions over long periods of time. Continuous data are essential for scientists to identify and analyse long-term climatic trends and changes.

During IPY 2007-2008, ESA will make its legacy data available through an extensive Earth observation data portfolio containing current and historical data (dating back 15 years) from its ERS 1, ERS 2 and Envisat satellites, as well as data collected from a number of non-ESA satellites.

Moreover, during this two-year period, ESA has committed to helping scientists collect an increasing amount of satellite information, particularly to understand recent and current distributions and variations in snow and ice. ESA satellite data – images, microwave data, and even sensitive gravity measurements – will be used to try to understand changes in the global ice sheets.

For this purpose, ESA issued, at the end of 2006, a dedicated Announcement of Opportunity for EO data provision for scientific research and application development in support of IPY 2007-2008, with data provision to start in spring 2007. All the data will be free of charge, and the 48 selected projects from 12 different countries will cover both the Arctic and Antarctic regions.